History

There is no unanimity amongst scholars about the origin and antiquity of the language. The earliest known written form is on the copper plate of Vijayaditya found in Satara, dated 739 CE. The stone inscription at the feet of Shravanabelgola Gomateshwar - whose first line reads as "Chavundarajen Karaviyalen" (meaning - Built by Chavandaraja, the king), is another old specimen, constructed in 983 CE. Also, an interesting couplet is found in the Jain monk Udyotan Suri's 'Kuvalayamala' in the 8th century, referring to a bazaar where the Marhattes speak Dinnale (Dile - given), Gahille (Ghetale - taken).

Scholars believe that Marathi descended from the Prakrit dialect Maharashtri and was the official language of the Satavahana empire during its early periods. With the patronage of the Satavahana empire based at Pratishthana (now Paithan), Maharashtri became the most widespread Prakrit dialect of its time, and also predominated amongst the three "Dramatic" Prakrits (Sauraseni and Magadhi being the other two). The Marathi spoken under the Yadavas (1180 – 1320) had many words borrowed from Telugu and Kannada. A version of Maharashtri, Jaina Maharashtri, was used in part of the Jain canon. The most famous literature in Maharashtri is the Gathasaptashathi, an anthology of poems collected by the Satavahana Emperor Hala. Maharashtri slowly evolved into Marathi over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries CE.

At present, Marathi is spoken extensively in the state of Maharashtra, as well as in the neighboring states. There are active film and music industries in Marathi, as well as an active set of Marathi writers and poets. The Maharashtrian diaspora has spread the language around the world. Presently it is one of the official languages of India which is closest to Sanskrit and shares most of its attributes.

Although it is debated whether Konkani is a separate language or a dialect of Marathi, it is very similar to Marathi. In Marathi, the consonant 'L' is abundantly used while in the Varhadii dialect, it is replaced by the letter 'y' which makes it quite distinct. Such phonetic shifts are common in spoken Marathi, and as such, the spoken dialects vary from one region of Maharashtra to another.

Another dialect of Marathi called as "Thanjavur Marathi" is spoken by a wide group of people residing in South India. There is more of a mix of the local language in the marathi that is spoken by these people. This Marathi evolved from the time of occupation of the Marathas in the Southern Region of Tamilnadu viz.,Thanjavur. There is even a huge fort that was built by the Marathas in Thanjavur during their occupation. This fort is a landmark in Thanjavur and a place of tourist interest in South India. This dialect of Marathi is considered to be a very impure form of Marathi and the "real" Maharashtrians in Maharashtra do not even have an idea about the existence of such "Marathi" speaking people in the South. It is noteworthy that more than a lakh of people speak this dialect of Marathi. This marathi speaking population reside mostly in parts of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

There are also various associations formed by these "Marathi" speaking people in South India. In Chennai there is this association known as "Maratha Education Fund" or MEF in short. In Hyderabad also there exists a similar organisation called as SIMA or the South Indian Maharashtrians Association. These associations provide for a meeting ground for this relatively small group of such "Marathi" speaking people down south to share their culture and also for finding matrimonial matches.

More than 98% of these "thanjavur marathi" speaking people are Hindus. Among this group, there are 2 sects of people viz., the "Smarthas" and the "Madhwas". Anology can be drawn from the 2 sects in Tamil brahmins viz., the "Iyers" and "Iyengars". Smarthas worship Lord Shiva, whereas the Madhwas worship Lord Vishnu. These sects of people have also settled down in other north indian states as well as abroad.

Official status

Marathi serves as an official language of Maharashtra; the State of Goa also recognizes Marathi as an official language along with Konkani. The Constitution of India recognizes it as one of the twenty-two official languages of the country.

Sounds

Marathi uses the Devanagari script for writing. Marathi script consists of 16 vowels and 36 consonants making a total of 52 letters. Please visit the Devanagari page for a more accurate pronunciation guide.

Word Formation

Vowels are combined with consonants using special diactric marks to form syllables which are strung together to form a word . Each vowel has a characteristic mark, such as kaana for 'aa', velaantee for 'i' and 'ii', ukar for 'u' and 'uu', single or double matra to indicate 'e, ai, o and au', anuswAr for 'am' and visarga for 'ah'. Syllables which involve 'i' and 'u' are called rhasva (short) which require a short pronunciation whereas syllables involving 'ii' and 'uu' are called deergha (long) forms which require stretched or long pronunciation. There are two separate marks to indicate rhasva' and 'deergha. These are helpful in knowing where the stress lays while pronouncing the word.

Marathi has a complex system to make jodakshare (consonant clusters). When two or more consecutive consonants are followed by a vowel then a jodakshar (cluster) is formed. The pronunciation of such clusters is similar to the English words like stop, scandle, sweet, empty etc.

tyaache - त्याचे

prastaav - प्रस्ताव

vidya - विद्या

myaan - म्यान

tvaraa- त्वरा

mahattva- महत्त्व

phakt - फॅक्ट

baahulyaa - बाहुल्या

The letter 'r' is most complex when combined with other consonants and there are four different marks in the script depending on the usage. The consonant clusters which are difficult to pronounce are the aspirated forms of N, n and m (mhaNUn, nhAN, kaNheri etc.) and of r,l and v (tarhA, kolhA, kevhA).

Before the use of the printing press, writers in Marathi used a different script called the Modi script -- a cursive script designed for minimising the lifting of pen from paper while writing. However, with the advent of large-scale printing, Modi script fell into disuse, as it proved very difficult for type-setting. (See External Links). The courts in the olden days also used Persian-type scripts under the influence of Muslim and Maratha rulers.

Pronouns

Dwitiya purushh (Second person) includes tuu (You) and tumhi (plural you). Tumhi is also used in the singluar to show respect. In rare cases, aapan is used in the place of tumhi, and is considered extremely formal.

Trutiya purushh (Third person) includes to (He), tii (She) and te (It). The plural form for the masculine gender is te which (like tumhi) can also be used in the singular to express reverence. The plural for feminine is tyaa and neuter is tee. All of these plural forms are translated as 'they'.

Sentence structure

The usual word order in a sentence is Subject Object Verb (SOV); however, because of the extensive declension and conjugation patterns, order can be changed for stess purposes without a loss in meaning (unlike English).

Prepositions

Prepositions in Marathi are indicated through the use of suffixes. These are referred to as vibhaktI pratyay and
there are eight such vibhaktI in Marathi. The form of the original word changes when such a
suffix is to be attached to the word and the new, modified root is referred to as sAmAnya rUp of
the original word. For example, the word ghoDA (a horse) gets transformed into ghODyA- when the suffix -var (on/above) is attached to it to form ghODyavar(on the horse).

Forming Complex Words

There are also rules(like Sanskrit and German) to join words together to form a complex word.
This is referred to as a sandhi (combination). For example, ati+uttam gives the
word atyuttam.

The other method of combining words is referred to as samAs (margin) and there are no fixed rules for
making a samAs. When the second word starts with a consonant,
a sandhi can not be formed, but a samAs can be formed. For example, mIth-bhaakar (salt &
bread), udyogpatI (businessman), ashtabhujA (a Hindu goddess with eight hands) etc. There are
different names given to each type of samAs.

Counting system

In Marathi, there are distinct names for the numbers 1 to 20 and each multiple of 10, as well as composite ones for those greater than 20.

There are distinct names for 1/4, 1/2, 3/4: 'paava', 'ardhaa', 'pauuNa' respectively. For most fractions greater than 1, the prefixes 'savvaa-', 'saaDe-', 'paavaNe-' are used. Note: There are special names for 3/2 ('diiD') and 5/2 ('aDich').

A positive integer is read by breaking it up from right to left (R->L), into parts each containing 2 digits, the only exception being the second part containing only 1 digit instead of 2. For example, 12,34,567 is read as '12 laksha 34 hajaara 5 she 67.